Boris Johnson's decision to allow Huawei to take part in Britain's 5G mobile network has put him at odds with Washington and with some influential Conservative backbenchers. But it has sent an important signal about his government's priorities as Britain prepares to leave the European Union on Friday.
In his Commons statement, foreign secretary Dominic Raab stressed the restrictions to be placed on Huawei, which will not be allowed near the core of the network or to critical services or high-security locations. Huawei equipment will be capped at a maximum of 35 per cent of the peripheral parts of the network: the masts and base stations positioned on top of buildings and lamp posts.
Espionage screening
Huawei is cheaper than other providers, which is why BT used its equipment when it was upgrading its telecommunications network more than a decade ago. Britain’s signals intelligence agency GCHQ set up a laboratory near Oxford to examine all the code and equipment Huawei brought into Britain and it has never found any evidence of espionage or the deliberate creation of a “backdoor” into the network to facilitate spying.
Johnson spoke to Donald Trump about the decision on Tuesday afternoon but the president was preoccupied by his plan to encourage Israel to annex the Palestinian Territories. But Britain's move on Huawei is an act of defiance against Washington, declaring that it will not be part of a trade war against China and that a trade deal with the US is not its highest post-Brexit priority.
Competitive edge
Banning Huawei would make Johnson’s promise of universal high-speed broadband by 2025 more difficult to fulfil, putting an obstacle in the way of his ambition to make Britain a world leader in science and education. It is this ambition which is at the centre of the prime minister’s plan for Britain to find a competitive edge after it leaves the EU and if that means delaying the US trade deal sentimental Brexiteers crave, so be it.
Since last month's election, Johnson has confounded expectations by tacking towards Europe rather than the US on most big issues, from Iran to climate change. The Huawei decision is another declaration of independence and a signal that Johnson hopes to plot his own diplomatic course after Brexit, rather than escaping from the European embrace only to be locked in Trump's.